Great Lakes Growing

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=56 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="011a0a03.jpg"> <div> Great Lakes Growing</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=135 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="21fa0c01dduajq.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Educators Science and Math Institute Ser"><U><B>Educators' Science and Math Institute Series</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About the Series"><U><B>About the Series</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id117.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Goals"><U><B>Goals</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Institutes"><U><B>Institutes</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="lesson_plans_prepared_by_esmis_participants_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lesson Plans"><U><B>Lesson Plans</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id138.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Albums"><U><B>Photo Albums</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.ed.mtu.edu/search.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.ed.mtu.edu/search.htm"><U><B>Search</B></U></A><A HREF="http://www.ed.mtu.edu/search.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.ed.mtu.edu/search.htm"><U><B> ESMIS</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=424 BGCOLOR="#EEEEEE" TEXT="#080000"> <div> LESSON #2: How the Great Lakes Modify the Growing Season</div> <div> SUBJECT: Cross Curricular - Science/Social Studies</div> <bR> <div> <B>SPECIFIC GOALS:</B></div> <div> Given agricultural products, frost maps and an infrared satellite image, students will develop a hypothesis about the effect of the lakes on growing seasons. Students will use the materials fisted below to develop a method of testing their hypothesis, conduct the test, and explain how their results related to their hypothesis.</div> <bR> <div> <B>MATERIALS: </B>(per group)</div> <div> 2 thermometers        </div> <div> water         </div> <div> soil</div> <div> 2 buckets             </div> <div> ice          </div> <div> plastic beakers frost maps</div> <div> source of cold (i.e. Refrigerator or outside in winter)</div> <bR> <div> <B>TEACHER INTRODUCTION:</B></div> <div> Question of the Day <I>- What is the difference between an observation and an inference? </I>For instance, you observe that a peach is green, you infer that it's not ripe so you decide not to eat it. When testing the validity of a hypothesis, separating what you observe from conclusions you make about your experiment is important.</div> <bR> <div> <B>DEVELOPMENT 1:</B></div> <div> <B>1. </B>Distribute the attached copies. Have students locate the areas on the farming map which include fruit growing, locate area with the longest frost-free period. Show or distribute the infrared satellite image of the Great Lakes region attached. Explain that infrared energy can be detected with special sensors. The darker areas on the image are warmer; the lighter areas are colder. A few scattered clouds on the image are very cold and show pure white.</div> <div> <B>2. </B>Students will be asked to propose reasons for the survival of fruit orchards in these narrow bands around the takes. As a group, we will work toward developing one or several hypothesis which would explain the information in these maps.</div> <div> Ex. If there are more days without frost over the lakes than inland, then the lakes must help keep the frost from forming.</div> <div> Ex. If the lakes are colder than the surrounding land in June, then the land must warm up faster than the lakes.</div> <div> Ex. If the last frost in the spring is about the same but the first frost in the fall is later in areas closer to the lake, the lake must delay the frost.</div> <div> Ex. If the lake is colder in June and warmer in September than the surrounding land, then the lake must change temperature more slowly than the surrounding land.</div> <div> <B>3. </B>Students will now develop a way of testing the hypotheses they have developed. Students will obtain the materials listed above and are to construct a experiments which show that water warms more slowly than air or that water cools more slowly than soil.</div> <div> <B>DEVELOPMENT II:</B></div> <div> <B>4. </B>Hints for experimentation</div> <div> <B>a. </B>Place one thermometer in a bucket with ice water and suspend a second thermometer in air above a similar amount of ice in bucket without water. Record temperatures at regular intervals.</div> <div> <B>b. </B>Take equal amounts of room-temperature soil and water in buckets. Place thermometers in them. Place in cool or cold location. Record temperatures at regular intervals,</div> <div> <B>5.</B> I will monitor and help students organize and evaluate their experiments by asking questions such as:</div> <div> a.   How will we know a change is taking place?</div> <div> b.  What parts of the experiment vary (are different from one another?)</div> <div> c.   If more than one part varies, how will we know what cause the change? d. What can we do to make sure only one element is different?</div> <div> e.  What should we do with the information as we collect it?</div> <div> f.  How can we make our information understandable?</div> <div> <B>ASSIGNMENT:</B></div> <div> <B>6. </B>After students complete the experiment, we will check to see if their hypothesis are confirmed or refuted. Students will then write a brief report using their experiential data and the information on the maps, images and chart, in order to develop an explanation for why fruit can grow in a narrow band on the Michigan and Ohio Lake shore.</div> <bR> <div> <B>CONCLUSION:</B></div> <div> The water of the lakes moderate the temperatures over the land along their edges. This means that in the winter the lakes are warmer than the air. As air passes over them it warms up and carries the warmth for about 30 miles (48km). This warmer air keeps the fruit trees and plants form being frozen by temperatures which drop far below zero. In spring the water stays cool longer than the air and land. Air passing over the lake cools off, and stays cool around the fruit area. This cooling slows the developments of fruit blossoms. The trees and plants blossom later when there is less chance of damage by frost. In the late summer and early fall the warmed water of the lake again warms the air, protecting the mature fruit from damage by early frost.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>